Ali­cia Llanos

Con­struc­tion of the Aranguez Fly­over, as­so­ci­at­ed ramps and par­al­lel road­ways, will cost tax­pay­ers close to $170 mil­lion. This was con­firmed yes­ter­day by Min­is­ter of Works and Trans­port Colm Im­bert, dur­ing the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Co Ltd (Nid­co) sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the struc­ture on Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way. Im­bert said the fly­over was a con­ti­nu­ity of the Churchill-Roo­sevelt/ Uri­ah But­ler In­ter­change Pack­age B project. He said the project was con­tract­ed to the in­ter­na­tion­al con­struc­tion com­pa­ny, Vin­ci Con­struc­tion Grands Projects, at a cost of $166,672,249.73. Im­bert said the in­ter­na­tion­al firm brought with them their first-world tech­nol­o­gy. Lo­cal con­tract­ing firm Ju­nior Sam­my Con­struc­tion was al­so con­tract­ed to work with Vin­ci.

He said the cost en­com­passed the de­sign and con­struc­tion of a 54-me­tre long, sin­gle-span com­pos­ite deck bridge, with two as­so­ci­at­ed ramps. "The de­vel­op­ment of mod­ern road in­fra­struc­ture will play a vi­tal role in the achieve­ment of de­vel­oped coun­try sta­tus. "The Gov­ern­ment has tak­en a de­ci­sion to de­vel­op, as a pri­or­i­ty, in the short­est pos­si­ble time, an ap­pro­pri­ate and mod­ern high­way sys­tem in our coun­try, along with im­prove­ments in ar­eas of ba­sic in­fra­struc­ture, such as wa­ter, elec­tric­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ca­tions." Im­bert said ob­jec­tive of the fly­over was to ac­com­mo­date the free flow of traf­fic on the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way.

The fly­over would re­sult, al­so, in re­moval of traf­fic lights at both the Aranguez and El So­cor­ro in­ter­sec­tions, through con­struc­tion of as­so­ci­at­ed par­al­lel roads on the north and south sides of the high­way. He said the par­al­lel roads were be­ing con­struct­ed by the Pro­gramme for Up­grad­ing Roads Ef­fi­cient­ly (Pure) of the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port. Im­bert said he would work to en­sure that the project was com­plet­ed by the be­gin­ning of 2011, with­in the al­lo­cat­ed bud­get. Mean­while, the min­istry will next year be­gin plans to widen the Beetham High­way from the Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um build­ing to the fi­nan­cial com­plex on the wa­ter­front. Im­bert could not give an es­ti­mat­ed cost of this project.

?More in­fo:

?$2.8 bil­lion to date

Im­bert says to date the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port had un­der­tak­en al­most 3,500 road im­prove­ment projects, at an ap­prox­i­mate cost of $2.8 bil­lion. "This pur­suit of im­proved road in­fra­struc­ture is part of the Gov­ern­ment's dri­ve to strength­en the eco­nom­ic and so­cial well-be­ing of com­mu­ni­ties, in ac­cor­dance with Vi­sion 2020." Im­bert said some up­com­ing projects of the Na­tion­al Net­work of High­ways Pro­grammes in­clud­ed:

1. Uri­ah But­ler High­way–$24m–by De­cem­ber, 2009

2. Solomon Ho­choy High­way (Ch­agua­nas)–$3.5m–by De­cem­ber, 2009,

3. Solomon Ho­choy High­way (Gas­par­il­lo Over­pass), Charles Street, Bonne Aven­ture roads and ad­ja­cent lo­cal roads–$25m–by De­cem­ber, 2009,

4. West­ern Main Road (be­tween Diego Mar­tin Riv­er and Sun­set Dri­ve)–$10.2m–by De­cem­ber, 2009,

5. Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way (be­tween Waller­field Pil­lars and An­tigua Road)–$64.2m–De­cem­ber, 2009,

6. Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way (Barataria to Aranguez)–$15.5m–com­plet­ed.